Cadillac Records

Verbatim from my short Netflix review (except for a change from a 5 star scale to my 4 star one here):

The history of Chicago blues deserves an amazing movie -- Muddy Waters, Etta James, Little Walter, Chuck Berry, Howling Wolf, and many others who aren't even mentioned in this movie led the dramatic lives that only bluesmen seem to live, and at the same time changed music, Chicago, and race relations forever.

Unfortunately this movie isn't amazing. It's entertaining enough, and the star-studded cast all have incredible talent, both in acting and in making music (which all the actors do on screen rather than dubbing it in). But the script tries to cram too much in at a time and ends up failing to do justice to these men and women's lives. This movie is too scattershot, with too many characters in the ensemble given too little screen time to explain their presence. If you don't already know who Howling Wolf is, for example, this movie won't really tell you. If you don't already know of him, his character is like an inside reference that you just don't get. At the same time, the movie is too generalized and too historically inaccurate to satisfy real blues fans. And if you know the songs being sung, they are off by just enough to drive you crazy (especially, for me, the Etta James songs, no matter how talented Beyonce is).

I was so ready to adore this movie, because I adore Chicago Blues. Instead, all I can say is that it inspired me to listen to my old CDs with Etta James, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, and all the rest, and made me want to read a real biography of the Chess family. That's enough to warrant a very solid two stars, but I'm so sad I can't give it more.

Prayer for my professor

Over the past few weeks, I had forgotten to check some of the blogs I used to frequent. Not many blog posts can make me cry, but this one did. But not for the obvious reason (at least, not solely for that reason). It's just that Professor Stuntz's wisdom and strength are just so overwhelming to me that I have no other response. His amazing faith is such a reflection of God's work in him that, even with all the pain Professor Stuntz has had to endure, I find myself admiring him more than pitying him. In some (I feel somewhat perverse) way, just witnessing a tiny, infinitesimal part of Professor Stuntz's experience has blessed and humbled me. I pray for his family's peace and comfort in all of this, and that his journey (wherever it leads) will bring him even closer to the Lord.

Yes! I wasn't hallucinating this

You know how you have vague memories, vague enough that you can't remember identifying information such that your friends don't think you're crazy, but vivid enough that you're absolutely sure your memory is real? I get that a lot with things I watched as a kid. For about a dozen years I was haunted by a memory of a terrifying movie (at least to my 4 year old self) with flashing lights and a cartoon kid who was lost and trying to get home but didn't get help from the things that were giving him grammar lessons when he asked questions. Then finally I realized what it was, thanks to a high school friend unwittingly recommending to me the original source material: The Phantom Tollbooth. Then my sister and I both swore we saw a version of Alice in Wonderland that no one had ever heard of, until I was finally able to find it on eBay.

Tonight I got to fill in another puzzle piece of my childhood movie experience. I was browsing allposters.com, which I do relatively frequently, actually. And found this, the first evidence that the strange Russian Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn mix with no subtitles that we accidentally rented from the neighborhood video store (it was in the wrong box, so we were never 100% positive that it was Huck Finn, but my dad was pretty sure) actually exists.


That boy looks familiar, so I'm pretty sure it's the one. Mystery (partially) solved. Still not sure if it's this version or not, but I'm guessing it is.